I just finished reading the "Possessed" book and it mentioned that fans ordered Crystal Ball in advance and recieved there orders late or didnt recieve it at all. It also said that alot of his fans were angry and blasted him in forums about the way he ran PP. I saw CB on the website when it came out and I decided not to order it. I didn't think it was gonna be good.I never heard it. Who got it? Was it worth it?

Yes...A must have....

It does have a few down sides (IMO) like.....
50 minutes each cd
and a hand full of remix versions (5 or more)

The Up side
Expert lover
Dream factory
Break my heart

just to name a few
U should enjoy it

There a few vers that were available
4 cd set
5 cd set (w/ kamasutra cd as bonus)
Also was availabe in different cases,designs
Cd jewel box 4 cd
Clear plastic 'crystal ball' case - 4 or 5 set
With art inserts...1st prints came with no covers ,inserts..
Cheaply packaged

Crystal Ball

I love SHE GAVE HER ANGELS
and THE RIDE
MOVIE STAR
LOVESIGN

totally worth it



.
[Edited 3/17/07 12:10pm]

mplsmike said:

"Expert Lover" was not released on the Crystal Ball set that came out in 1997.

Disc 1
1. Crystal Ball
2. Dream Factory
3. Acknowledge me
4. Ripopgodazippa
5. Love Sign (Shock G's Silky remix)
6. Hide the Bone
7. 2morrow
8. So Dark
9. Movie Star
10. Tell Me How U Want 2 B Done

Disc 2
1. Interactive
2. Da Bang
3. Calhoun Square
4. What's My Name
5. Crucial
6. An Honest Man
7. Sexual Suicide
8. Cloreen Bacon Skin
9. Good Love
10. Strays of the World

Disc 3
1. Days of Wild
2. Last Heart
3. Poom Poom
4. She Gave Her Angels
5. 18 & Over
6. The Ride
7. Get Loose
8. Make You Mama Happy
9. Goodbye

All released versions came with The Truth album as disc 4 (which alone makes the set worthwhile):

Disc 4 (The Truth):
1. The Truth
2. Don'T Play Me
3. Circle Of Amour
4. 3rd Eye
5. Dionne
6. Man in a Uniform
7. Animal Kingdom
8. The Other Side of the Pillow
9. Fascination
10. One of Your Tears
11. Comeback
12. Welcome 2 the Dawn (Acoustic Version)

Disc 5 was included with some sets, which was Kamasutra, basically intrumental/orchestra:

1. The Plan
2. Kamasutra
3. At Last... The Lost Is Found
4. The Ever Changing Light
5. Cutz
6. Serotonin
7. Promise/Broken
8. Barcelona
9. Kamasutra/Overture #8
10. Coincidence or Fate?
11. Kamasutra/Eternal Embrace

"The Plan" from Kamasutra also appeared on Emancipation.

Doozer said:

U 4got "P Control (Remix)" on CD 3

Doozer said:

Xpert Lover was the incorrectly assigned title for "Crystal Ball" on bootlegs.

I think it's great! I got mine at tower records before they closed for $13.99, all 3 disc.

SpecialEd said:

My bad...i forgot,mistaken.....by the way the cds were printed in 97..
But was not released till 98..i waited 8 month on my per-order back then..

edit : When i wrote Exert Lover... I meant Crystal Ball
[Edited 3/17/07 12:42pm]

mplsmike said:

Break My Heart was also the incorrectly assigned title for Last Heart.

It's a great collection of songs, the hits far outway the misses. But I can never understand people asking whether such and such an album is worth it, you will never know if it is to your taste until you hear it for yourself.

Believe me I heart ANYTHING Prince made so I don't care if its good or not. But it's interesting on seeing what yall thought about it BEing that it wasn't painted in a very good light by Alex Hahn or however u spel his name. But like P said " Nevermind what u hear"

metalorange said:

G'z give me a break..its been a while

Crystal Ball is a great collection of tracks. The only criticism is that it is a bit
random in it's sequencing, and doesn't flow particularly well as an album, but
that aside, the tracks themselves are great.

theodore said:

Thanks -- I also tried to forget all of disc 5 but failed there too.

I never really thought of the released version of Crystal Ball as an album persay (even just the first 3 discs) - more like a retrospective of outtakes, vault material, live songs, and remixes. The sparse packaging and odd sequencing give it a kind of "bootleg" feel -- "bootleg" is even part of the screenprinting art on the first three CDs.

Doozer said:

It is odd... but I like it

Love Crystal Ball-Crucial is my fav

There where some strange choices and It could have been alot better but it still contains some fantastic music.


I would say about 70% of it is great but this gets over shadowed by the odd choices of the remixes.

There are a couple of through aways Poom Poom for instance, there are much better songs in the vault. But at least its a proper outtake so In my opinion is worhty of a place on an outtakes set, unlike Tell me how u wanna be done which is just the end portion of The Continental remixed.

It also contains so previously unreleased stuff such as Good Love, but I think there rare enough, as in not b-sides or any Prince albums to be worthy of inclusion.

I think its gotta be considered an essential release as it contains

Crystal Ball
Dream Factory
Acknowledge Me
Ripopgodazippa
Hide The Bone
Movie Star
Interactive
Da Bang
Calhoun Square
Whats My Name
Crucial
Sexual Suicide
Cloreen Backonskin (Some hate this but I think its one of the highlights of the set)
Good Love
STrays Of The World
Days Of Wild
Last Heart
She Gave Her angels
Make Your Mama Happy (another song that gets stick but I Really like)
Goodbye

Disc two is by far the best with Three being the worse.

Got to agree with Boris about the running order. I think it would have been better putting the songs in more of a chronilogical order. Maybe like this

Disc 1

Crystal Ball
Dream Factory
Last Heart
Crucial
An Honest Man
Sexaul Suicide
Cloreen Backonskin
Make Yo Mama Happy
Good Love
Movie Star.

Disc 2

Interactive
Whats My Name
Calhoun Square
Days Of Wild
Acknowledge Me
Ripopgodazippa
Hide The Bone
Da Bang
Poom Poom
She Gave Her Angels
Goodbye
Strays Of The World

Disc 3

2 Morrow
SO Dark
Love Sign
18 And Over
The Ride
Get Loose
P Control
Tell Me How U Wanna B Done.

I don't think I'd ever listen 2 disc 3.
[Edited 3/18/07 4:17am]
[Edited 3/18/07 4:18am]

I always preferred Magic 8 balls over Crystal ones
So,
when I heard of this album,
I consulted with the 8 & asked "Will this album be worth the trouble of purchasing it?"
It responded with "Highy unlikely".

I love Crystal Ball but I can't understand the inclusion of the remixes and the running time of the CDs...

Cheek said:

Hehehe, I gave up a long time to understand Prince's actions when it comes to his songs, what he releases and how. The first time he did that to me was with the version of Joy In Repetition he chose to release, mixing off the original intro I love so much.

Same with the lame version of Old Friends 4 Sale; the first version is FAR superior in both lyrics and delivery.

After that I just took it all in stride.

HamsterHuey said:

Just imagine...the full version of Joy In Repetition on Sign O' The Times insead of Slow Love...

Cheek said:

Oh my. Make me crazy. I never understood why he left it off.

It was monstrously overpriced here in the UK, and I personally thought The Truth was awful.

Did have some really good tracks on it, but a lot of Prince fans who knew where to look would already have had these on bootleg already.

So yeah, the big problem I had with this was the price.

It's deinitely worth it. And since it has 4 CD's, you're bound to find at least several songs that you like.